Of LawBreaking and Dining and Other Acts of Love
by lowi
Summary: It's Scorpius' birthday and, well, if he's being honest there's only one thing he wishes for. /The 2012 Hogwarts Games - placed third in "Swimming" /OTP Boot Camp /For Wevi and Hattie


_A/N: This is written for both __The 2012 Hogwarts Games__ (Event: Swimming – Freestyle – 1000-2000 words) and the __OTP Boot Camp Challenge__ (OTP: AlbusScorpius, prompt #32, _ridiculous_). Both of these are found at the __HPFC__ forum._

_Many thanks to my beta-reader __mew-tsubaki__._

_About the story cover: Credit for the original picture goes to clearyourcache at Tumblr and for the edit of it to dee the deer here on FFN.  
_

_Dedicated to __my best enemy__ and __hat in a box__._

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**Of Law-Breaking and Dining and Other Acts of Love**

"This, my dear friend, is ridiculous." Scorpius was perched on top of a dumpster, legs hanging over the edge and swinging back and forth.

Albus snorted where he laid next to his friend, eyes closed and his tall body stretched out on the rusty surface. "You love it."

They were both silent for a moment, letting the sounds of boat engines and seagulls flow over them. Then Scorpius said quietly, as though afraid of destroying the moment, "Okay, I do love it."

Albus nodded, but because of his very horizontal position it more resembled an awkward rub with his head. "Told you."

Scorpius chewed on his lip and cast a glance at Albus' peaceful face. Yes, he loved this. He loved being here with Albus, in a country far away from home, where he could pretend it was just the two of them, and where he could forget about expectations and judgments.

And at the very same time, it was indeed ridiculous. Ridiculous because this was Albus Severus Potter, ridiculous because they were best friends, ridiculous because he was, yes, very much and hopelessly so, in love with said best friend.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Albus mumbled with fluttering eyelids – though they did stay closed.

"Nothing," Scorpius answered. "Or, well, more correctly, how awesome this is."

"True. I wish it was your seventeenth birthday more often, so we could do stuff like this more often."

Scorpius chortled. "But I don't wanna stay forever seventeen."

Albus now sat up straight and looked at the horizon, the sea reflecting in his eyes. "You don't?"

"You do?" Scorpius retorted.

Albus was quiet for a while, and then he spoke again with a slightly lowered voice. "We soon graduate. And…and then everything's over."

"Surely not everything," Scorpius said with a grin, but as Albus didn't seem to notice his joking tone, it quickly faded away. "Really, Al? It's just graduation. It's not as though our lives are over."

"But we'll be adults. And then we'll just have those lives where we'll live that way everyone's expecting us to live, and we'll go on regretting never doing all those things we have never done and always wanted to do."

Scorpius didn't respond. Albus' words were a bit jumbled, his thoughts certainly jittery, but down below that sentence was something very desperate, which made Scorpius feel an unpleasant twist in his gut.

He looked out at the sea again, trying not to think of "never doing all those things we have never done and always wanted to do." The sun was beginning to rise for real now; since they had left England before lunch time, it had been extremely early in the morning when they had arrived in the U.S.

"Hey, get the hell offa there!" An angry voice startled the two boys, and they quickly turned around to see a man standing on the other side of a fence that, apparently, surrounded them.

Albus looked at Scorpius with raised eyebrows as the two of them jumped down of the dumpster. "Sorry, sir, we didn't know," he said loudly.

"So you just walked through this gate without even noticing this huge sign saying 'entrance prohibited'?" the man asked as he opened the gate for them. "I could have called the cops, you know?"

"We won't do it again," Albus answered quickly, while Scorpius tried to remember if it was a cop that drove people places over here or a cab.

As the man shook his head exasperatedly, the two of them hurried down the street, to get away from there. "What would the cops do, Al?" Scorpius asked, as he figured it would be the best way to get answers to his queries without sounding completely uneducated. Because, even though he had taken Muggle Studies since third year, he had slept through them.

"The cops?" Albus responded with raised eyebrows. "I don't know, just shun us away I suppose."

Scorpius nodded, even though the reply didn't make it completely crystal clear for him.

As they left the fenced area, as well as the docks, and arrived at the more urban part of the city, Albus said, "He was a jolly good fellow," with a shake of his head to where they had left the angry man.

"Well, it wasn't really the place to be, was it?"

"But how could we help it that we arrived in that very spot when we Apparated?"

"But how could we tell him that?" When Albus didn't answer but shoved his hands down his pockets, Scorpius grinned. "Where to now, then?"

"Well, I'm hungry," Albus said. Scorpius' grin didn't disappear – it was just so Albus, to always be hungry.

"How about that place then?" Scorpius asked, indicating a small coffee shop at the end of the street.

"Sounds perfect to me!" Albus' eyes lit up at the prospect of food, and Scorpius had to hurry to keep up with the taller boy as he increased his speed.

Well inside, with sandwiches and tea in front of them, they ate in silence. Or, Albus kept groaning with pleasure, so it wasn't completely quiet. "This –" – he paused a bit to swallow –" – was the –" – another bite – "– best sandwich –" – and swallow – "ever."

"Oh, really?" Scorpius asked, not really listening because Albus' groans had caught him quite off-guard, as they made him think of what other reasons there could be for Albus to groan like that. And how very much he'd like to be that reason.

"Yeah."

"Al? You know what you said earlier, about growing up?" Scorpius asked quickly, letting the words drop out of his mouth before he would have time to think about what he was doing right now.

"What about it?"

"Exactly what are the things you regret not having done?"

Albus looked at Scorpius, a glint of _something_ in those green eyes before it disappeared, and he smiled. "Oh, you know, those regular things, never having swum in the Black Lake with the Giant Squid. Never having gone into the Forbidden Forest. Never having camped a night in the Shrieking Shack."

Scorpius snickered, trying to not show how his heart had sunken more and more with every word Albus had said. "But there is still some time left for that, isn't there?"

"Yeah, sure. But, if we do it now, it will only be as though we have to do it. Not as a whim, as something we feel like doing in the very moment."

They both fell silent for a while, Albus not even touching his sandwich anymore but staring down at the table.

"Happy birthday, by the way," he then said, looking up with a tiny smile on his lips, and Scorpius melted. He couldn't take it anymore.

"Thanks. Can I ask for a certain present of you?"

"Sure," Albus responded without missing a beat, the smile still on his lips.

"It's something I would regret not having done before graduation. It's also something I feel like doing in this moment. Very much."

"What is it?"

"Could you please kiss me, Albus?" The last sentence came out as a whisper, and Albus held Scorpius' gaze so firmly he couldn't look away. The glint had returned in his eyes, and then Albus leaned across the table and their lips met.

Their foreheads were resting against each other, and Albus tasted of cheese and bread, and their knees hadn't yet found a place to be where they wouldn't bump into each other uncomfortably, but Scorpius didn't mind at all. It was the best ten seconds of his life, he deemed when he felt Albus leaning back to catch his breath.

"Happy birthday again, Scor." It was now Albus who whispered. "I hope there will be more moments when you feel like doing that."

"Thank you, and there will be."

Albus chuckled. "How about now?"

"Yes, please."


End file.
